Video Drives ROI, Says Brightcove’s Stu Barnes

In a conversation with Switch, Stu Barnes, commercial director at Brightcove, an online video hosting platform, drove the point home that videos aren’t just a tool for raising awareness about a business. There are plenty of other ways video delivers return on investment.

According to Barnes, a company in the San Francisco Bay Area was able to add $103 million to its pipeline through video influence. That alone should suggest that video is continuing to achieve marketing success, and many other companies are doing the same. According to Copy Press, 51.9 percent of marketers said that video was the content that produced the best ROI. Barnes stresses that video can be used in many parts of customer lifecycle: for increasing knowledge, loyalty and advocacy or conversions.

The same is true for explainer videos. Barnes cited the experience of Verizon and Dell, which used explainer videos to provide resources for customer support. In doing so, they reduced their overall support costs.

The Future of Video Is App Based

According to Barnes, video content is moving toward app delivery and away from Web-based experiences.

“I think what we’ve seen is what I would call the appification of video experience over the last year,” he told Switch.

Dwell times on app-based experiences are growing as dwell time on Web browser-based experiences decreases. As a result, Brightcove’s customers are concentrating on making videos for apps. As this trend continues, companies will start investing in video content for apps, not just on mobile, but other connected devices, like smart televisions and gaming stations, Barnes said.

Through the evolution of digital video, explainer videos are holding strong as a communications tool that can be used at every level of the sales cycle and beyond.